Recalled less than a month into the season to give it another go in a much lower-stress situation, he still proved he couldn’t handle it, his one-third of an inning in Wednesday’s loss the clincher. Strike two.

You could see the dejection in the rookie’s body language as he gave up two add-on runs in a one-run game on Wednesday, then had to give up the ball after loading the bases.

After the game, he was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo. Luke Putkonen will be recalled before Thursday’s game in Houston.

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“I think he wants to do so good, so bad, I think he probably does show a little bit of emotion, to be honest with you. But that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with emotion,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of the 22-year-old Rondon.

“This is big stakes for players, especially when you’re young players. There’s a lot of emotion that goes with this stuff. Wants to be here bad, you know, doesn’t want to go down — and I understand that — but right now it’s best for him to do that.

“Like I said, we think the world of him, think he’s got a big future.

“I think the best way to put it is, he’s just not ready for this yet.”

Expected to be the Tigers’ closer of the future — or maybe even the present, had he won the job in spring training — Rondon came up within 24 hours of the Tigers bringing Jose Valverde back to the big leagues, meaning he didn’t have to worry about learning that role on the fly.

But he earned a blown save when he gave up the tying run in his first appearance then, after a lower-leverage outing the next night, sat for five days before getting called on again.

“In fairness to Rondon, I just can’t get him enough work. I think (with) the Villarreal situation, and Dotel, we took a shot, but I just couldn’t get the kid enough work,” said Leyland of the low-risk decision to bring up Rondon when veteran Octavio Dotel went on the disabled list, and Brayan Villarreal was sent down for similar control issues.

“He needs to go down there to close games. That’s what we think he’s going to do. We certainly still believe that. But he needs to go down and get some work. You saw today, throw it hard, and they charge it hard.”

At one point Wednesday, Rondon threw three straight pitches at 101 mph, but gave up hits on two of them, the first a laser triple to the right-field corner by Twins rookie Aaron Hicks. One necessary adjustment might be to dial back on the tremendous velocity, in the hopes that he can harness the control a little better on his fastball.

“I think that’s a very legitimate point. You can get outs at 95, 96 with better location. It’s nice to have that extra in your tank if you need it,” Leyland said.

“But right now, he’s just not ready for this.

“When I say that, please don’t think anybody’s down on him, because we think he’s a future closer at the major league level.”

Right now, he just needs to be a closer at the Triple-A level, and work on many of the same things — command of the zone, fastball control, throwing secondary pitches for strikes, slowing down the run game — he struggled with this spring.

“He’ll hopefully make some adjustments,” Leyland said, “and this is good for him, no question about that.”

Coke goes on DL, Ortega up

It wasn’t the only move of the day involving the bullpen, which is still in flux from both injuries and inconsistent performances.

“We don’t have this bullpen quite in synch just yet. We’ve been fortunate, because the starters have been so good, it eased some of the pain for some of the guys, but today we got one that put us in a little position, where we had to make some adjustments,” Leyland said. “And it didn’t work out very well.”

Earlier in the day, the Tigers placed Phil Coke on the 15-day disabled list, making the move retroactive to April 26.

“Well, it seemed to be a day-to-day thing, because there was forward progression each day, until yesterday. I was very optimistic going into yesterday, but when I felt what I was feeling, suddenly I was a little less optimistic about giving them the thumb’s up, ‘Hey, I can pitch today,’” Coke said of the decision to put him on the DL “It was in the conversation from the beginning, but I was being given enough leeway to see what happened. ... I worked my tail off, trying to get it right, and it wasn’t cooperating.”

Coke hadn’t pitched since Thursday, when he went 1 1/3 innings in the Tigers’ 8-3 loss to the Royals, watching his ERA nearly double (going from 4.91 to 8.31) with four earned runs charged to his record.

Somewhere during the outing, Coke tweaked an adductor muscle in his groin, and has not pitched since. He’d been day-to-day in the interim.

“I can’t stand day-to-day,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of the up-in-the-air nature of short-term injuries. “Those are the toughest kind, that four-, five-day (stuff). ... I’ve seen that (stuff) all my life. It don’t work.

“We can backdate it some, get him better move on.”

Ortega — who found out about his promotion at 3 a.m., after the Mud Hens returned from their road trip to Norfolk, Va. — gives the Tigers another arm to use, if need be.

He struck out 19 in 14 innings of work at Toledo, not allowing a run and only allowing five hits in his 10 appearances.

“According to the reports, he’s really throwing well. ... He’s throwin’ (expletive) gas, 96, 97. Gas,” Leyland said before Wednesday’s game. “He’s always had electric stuff. ... I’m anxious to see him. I hope it’s not in the second inning today. He evidently must be doing something a little different — and I can’t swear to that. Must be hiding the ball better or something. I don’t know. But they said he’s really throwing well.”

The 24-year-old Ortega made two appearances with the Tigers last year, but what has held him back to date has been control.

“He’s been 2-0 on too many guys. No matter how good an arm you’ve got, that normally doesn’t work,” Leyland said. “We’ll see if he can translate what he was doing down there to the majors. It’d be a big help, because he’s got electric stuff. ...

“I don’t get excited when those young guys are all throwing early on at TigerTown, but he can’t help but catch your eye.”

Ortega threw a scoreless ninth inning in Wednesday’s game. He’ll probably be used in shorter relief roles, while Putkonen will move into the long reliever role, freeing up Drew Smyly to be the primary lefty out of the bullpen.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.